Avid shooters, e.g. hunters, competition shooters, military personnel, law enforcement officers, etc., rely on many different pieces of information in order to make accurate and precise shots. Some of the information relied upon by shooters is based upon environmental factors such as distance, minute of angle, elevation hold value, wind hold value, pressure, temperature, or elevation. Some information is based upon the equipment being used, for example scope height, muzzle velocity, and/or the ballistic being used, for example bullet class, bullet speed, bullet's ballistic coefficient and bullet drag model, or a combination of these parameters, such as observed bullet drop. This information is commonly referred to in the shooting industry as Data On Personal Equipment, Data On Previous Engagements, or “DOPE.”
Due to the amount of different DOPE values that can affect the precision and accuracy of a shot and the variability of the same, keeping track of such DOPE values can be challenging for shooters. Some shooters use hand-written log books to enter the information themselves. Other shooters may use a number of pre-calculated DOPE charts from which a shooter can look up the information needed, however many shooters do not use such pre-calculated charts because they are tied to what a particular gun/ammo combination should produce, but every gun shoots slightly differently. Furthermore, if the user changes either the gun or ammo being used, the chart is useless. Furthermore, shooters often cut portions of their hand-written logs or books into a circular or disc shape and taping or gluing them to the inside of their optic covers. Such hand-written logs suffer from diminished legibility and information density limitations, which often prove problematic, particularly if a shooter needs to use the DOPE information in less than ideal conditions, such as at night, in inclement weather, or in high stress military or hunting environments. Humans simply cannot hand-write legible characters as small as a printer can print.
Many shooters use an optical device such as, but not limited to a scope, when shooting. In order to protect the lenses of the optical device from scratches, shooters will often use covers. Some covers, called flip cap or flip open covers, fit on the end(s) of the optical device and have a cap that can be closed when the optical device is not in use or opened when the shooter intends on using the optical device. When the flip cap is open, the eyepiece of the optical device is available for use by the shooter with the cover's cap off to the side or above the optical device. Since the inside of the cover's cap is available for use and faces the shooter when the cover is open, the inside of the cap is a convenient place to hold a shooter's DOPE chart.
One company called Scope Dope states that it offers “a quick reference ballistic data disc designed to fit inside the cover of a ‘flip-open’ riflescope cap . . . made from heavy die cut vinyl.” Scope Dope also states that a shooter can then “pre-record critical data using the waterproof permanent pen onto the data disc.” The discs offered by Scope Dope can be attached to a cap by using glue or tape. While Scope Dope's products provide a circular form factor that fits inside a riflescope cap, the shooter must still hand write the DOPE values into the chart, so legibility and information density remains a concern.
As such, there is a need for a system and method that allows a shooter to input certain information or parameters, such as environmental information, gun information, and ammunition information (including custom ammunition), or a combination of such information or parameters, which the system processes to generate a custom DOPE chart in an identified format. That DOPE chart may then be produced in a highly legible, durable, and waterproof DOPE chart display that is removable and replaceable in a scope cap.